The Fox Nation Launches A Dud

This morning there was a disturbance in the Force. The Fox Nation debuted amidst fanfare and the gnashing of teeth at tea parties everywhere. However, reports of the Fox News secession movement appear to have been a little overblown (by me, mostly). The reality of the Fox Nation is significantly less substantial than previously predicted.

The Fox Nation is apparently not an attempt to abandon the Union (although my satirical representation of it as such was actually taken seriously by some right-wing conspiracy theorists across the InterTubes). It is merely a low grade, right-wing, knockoff of the Huffington Post. The partisan character of its Fox News parentage, however, is plainly visible. The “fair and balanced “ collection of articles featured at the top of its page (see picture above) present the President as “scary” and promote the rightist triumvirate of Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Beck (oh my). Digging down further we find a plethora of partisanship in reporting:

Chris Dodd’s cavalcade of scandal

Lobbyist scandal to ensnare Murtha?

Dick Morris: Obama soft on terror, hard on charities

Daily Beast: Who did Pelosi’s face?

Affirmative Action for Muslims in the White House?

Stacked!! Obama fills town hall with supporters

Hannity holding Tea Party on Tax Day

WaPo interrogation story ‘rife with misinformation’

Video: Bill Maher smears US troops

Limbaugh ratings skyrocket after Democrat attacks

Of course the headlines on Fox Nation must not be taken too seriously. For instance, the article about Obama stacking his town hall with supporters doesn’t actually produce any evidence of that being done. In fact, it reports that invitations were sent to many groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. With regard to the Huffington Post, Fox Nation takes a swipe at them as well, with an article derogatorily titled, “Huffington Post to rummage through your trash.” The actual article is about a new investigative journalism venture by HuffPo, not some dumpster diving sensationalism. We’ll leave that to Fox. Recall also that O’Reilly has compared Arianna Huffington to Nazis. I don’t expect it will be long before he and the rest of the Fox lineup will escalate their war against HuffPo as a competitor the way they have with NBC.

Obviously the intent of Fox Nation is to inject a negative tone whether or not anyone ever clicks through to the articles. And it’s revealing to take a look at the heavily right-weighted array of news sources employed on Fox Nation – including four owned by Rupert Murdoch:

New York Post (Murdoch)

Wall Street Journal (Murdoch)

Fox Business Network (Murdoch)

The Sun (Murdoch)

Townhall.com

Michele Malkin

Andrew Breitbart

Washington Times

NewsBusters

National Review

Conservative Express

NewsMax

Matt Drudge

In the end, the Fox Nation is nothing more than a dressed up version of the Fox Forums that already pollute the web. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a potential threat to civil discourse and domestic tranquility. Fox Nation aggregates the Fox audience under a single banner that gives them an identity and a flag to fly. The comments section is as ideologically monochromatic as you would expect from the Fox stable of so-called “news” enterprises. It is also overtly hostile to anyone not sufficiently attuned to neo-Dark-Age conservatism. The community, hyped as “a place to call home,” is as rabidly anti-Obama as it is bewitched by Beck.

It’s still early, and perhaps this is just the first phase of the eventual division of America. It goes without saying that Fox has as its purpose to be divisive and that Fox Nation is in alignment with purpose. It just remains to be seen how far they will go. And for this reason it remains important to keep an eye on future developments.

This just in: Fox News Senior VP Bill Shine says of Fox Nation, “We’re calling it a mix between the Huffington Post and Drudge.” Hmmm.

7 thoughts on “The Fox Nation Launches A Dud”

Breitbart makes the most idiotic (and hilarious) case for conservatives as the victims of a ruthless left-wing Internet cabal. This column is so packed with paranoid delusions that I may need to inject my computer with mega-doses of Prozac.

you all are totally naive and blind if you think this tea party tax protest and Obama is not easing the USA towards one monetary system worlwide. Hence the overspending of the dollar, makes it easier for the transition of the currency when the dollar is worthless. LEFT WING IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tea Party Hate movement………………………… The most dangerous element of “any” society are those that promote patriotism through hatred and separatism; there’s no difference between them and the “Third Reich” (the Nazis). This group feeds the hate groups through lies and distortions simply because of their inability to “think” for themselves.How in the name of God anyone can fault the present administration for this mess we’re in is beyond me. These are the same “flag waving” segment that wrapped themselves in the American flag and declared their total allegiance to George Bush and the most corrupt administration in the history of this country. They are also fully aware that he and his cronies created this entire near bankruptcy in our economy today. Now they blame Barack Obama who is doing a magnificient job handling this rape of our economy. It simply goes to show that anyone who would listen to and follow a dope fiend such as Rush “Hoghead” Limbaugh are obviously retarded and mentally deficient. These people are and always will be very dangerous. They need to monitored by Homeland Security daily; they are capable of doing “anything”.

The Teabaggers Parties really are racist! If it is not about race, then where the hell were they when Bush was running up the deficit? Obama didn’t even spend much yet (other than bailing out CORPORATE AMERICA, you know, the “free market” that you $cumbags love so much?), he’s only been talking about it. Yet these a$$hole teabaggers make like their redneck world’s going to end!